Romanticize Life — JUSTINEY

One of the goals I had for myself this year is to learn how to romanticize life more.

So..How do we Romanticize?

It can simply be to take the time to prep and arrange some “just because” flowers for yourself to help uplift your mood and space.

Romanticizing can be to turn on some moody lights, light a candle, while cozied up reading a good book to prep for an early night’s rest.

It can also be the walks you take during the quiet mornings so you can witness and experience the warmth of the sunrise for the day.

Whatever it is for you, I view it as taking the time to learn how to enhance and love your “everyday”, not just the weekend ahead or that vacation you saved your PTO on.

Like most of us do to start the year, we try to jam pack a ton of goals to meet for ourselves, so much that it seems the more we push for it, the more pressure is felt, and no matter how much we try, the goals we have seem to be in a never ending hamster wheel, and it becomes difficult to feel a sense of accomplishment or that fulfilling “happiness” until our goals are met. There’s also those times where we actually do meet those goals, but we immediately jump to the next one without savoring the journey it took and celebrate the accomplishment. I guess you can say that the last few months, I’ve felt in a scramble to attain that instant gratification where I just haven’t been feeling aligned with where I’m supposed to be. Life had been feeling stagnant in repetitive motions every morning, to the point where I had to stop and think if my current rushed state is fulfilling me with purpose.

As crazy as it sounds, I have about 20 items I plan to check off this year, and though most are still a work in progress, I noticed my last goal on my list was to:

“Romanticize every experience <3” which was a goal I didn’t start yet..well until the beginning of last month.

For how simple it sounds, romanticizing life more has helped me feel the most accomplished and fulfilled next to all the ambitious goals I’ve made for myself in just a month’s time. In hindsight, with just the simplicity of romanticizing my everyday experiences, it has helped me continue my checklist of goals with a clear mind and satisfied mental state.. no matter what point of the goal I am working on. Romanticizing our experiences hones intention to what we choose to do, and sparks gratitude within even the most mundane of tasks or events.

I unintentionally started to romanticize my day when I was curious to try out the ever so viral “Andrew Huberman’s Optimized Morning Routine” which is scientifically driven to help improve productivity. It is basically a routine in the morning which I start at 5AM to jump start my weekdays..I know 5AM sounds crazy especially when you want to catch those extra ZZZ’s before working the 9-5, but after the first day doing it, I became hooked. I realized that giving myself a couple extra hours in a day to just focus solely on myself, including taking the time to journal my thoughts and gratitude, practice more meditation during the quiet mornings, and even make it a priority to make the effort in creating a perfect cup of loose leaf tea or matcha (..even if it includes the extra foam haha) prioritizes myself first thing in the day and allows me to be present in the moment; which has been a continuous work in progress for me.

I used to wake up, hit the snooze, and find myself rushing to make it to work, then once it hits 5pm, go home, eat dinner, do some chores and get ready for the next day as my energy has been exhausted from the work day. Over time I would feel caught up in “to-dos” and completing never ending checklists that I couldn’t find the free time to give back to enjoy myself - I would need to take what I call “Justine Days”; a couple days a month alone with no plans. Basically, just doing the things that bring me peace, so I can catch a break — but even that wouldn’t feel like enough.

With this morning routine, I allow time to myself for self-improvement, check-in and to quiet the mind from the world where the only focus is me. Time just slows down and becomes clear for some reason when we set aside the time for ourself. Now I even look forward to waking up at 5am on the work days because it starts with “me” time. I get to romanticize every step of this morning routine and try to treat it as a “luxury” experience. By doing this, it really helps set the tone for my day as well as increase my productivity to progress in the goals I set for myself daily. Testing this out showed me that prioritizing our inner peace is substantial to build intention, and sometimes constantly being “busy” doesn’t always result in productivity.

We fail at looking in to each other’s eyes without laughing.

Live your life to its fullest experience, its okay to slow down and romanticize your moments..smell the roses on the way.

Got to romanticize a simple picnic during this shoot! If you want to learn the photography details behind the scenes check out guniguniphotos.com.